Mechis III is a sprawling series of automated droid building facilities. The planet fell in disarray due to IG-88's hostile takeover of the planet in 15 BBY. The droid rebellion ended shortly after the destruction of the second Death Star, and the factory started falling into glitchy production lines of droids. Eventually Tyko Thul, former Alderaanian Noble bought the planet to begin repairing the droid factories and make it perform at its peak performance again. Things began going great, so great that word got out that the facility was repaired to full capacity again.

This sparked an interest for our Research and Development Department, and also an interest by Army High Command. The idea that we could potentially cheapen the cost of our own droids with yet another droid construction facility with a much larger range of droids created than the previous few assumed.

Primary:
1) Minimal Damage to the droid production facilities
2) Secure any blueprints of plans used on the production assemblies
3) Secure any blueprint of plans discontinued from production that could prove fruitful

Secondary:
1) Stop any of the automated cargo pods from entering hyperspace
2) Back up the export records of the droid factories to know what has been shipped to whom and where
3) It is speculated that they produce some battle droids for the NR. (Confirm the rumors or render them false)

Juni was in a stealth shuttle, en route to near Mechis III. There wasn't much in the way of initial intel, but there were a lot of things on Mechis III that could be lost or destroyed in the coming attack on the world. So, for lack of time to insert the old fashioned way, something like a stealth shuttle was perhaps all that was really feasible at this point.

The shuttle was full of various ISIS agents, some ISS like her, and commandos. Glancing around the shuttle, she felt a bit insecure. Being probably the youngest, among so many probably well experienced agents, she was eager for another opportunity to prove herself.

Intel had suggested that most of the defenders would be primarily battle droids, with corporate security personnel in support, and so some ion weapons were provided. Juni had a DEMP gun beyond her 'normal' equipment. It was rather big, and bulky, though keeping it close to her, her stealth field generator would still be working well enough. Still, droids made the stealth field generator problematic, especially with having to choose between optimizing it for the standard spectra used with droid sensors and for most sentient eyes. Beyond that, she had been issued an old plasma blaster. Well, not really old, though the old part was it's association with the clone wars from about 40 years before, well before she was born. The Plasma based blasters used plasma with the bolts, and the ionic charge associated with it was devastating against droids, while still being at least as effective against other types of targets like regular blasters would, though at the cost of being less efficient with the use of the gas and power. She had gone through some training with the different type of blaster, and the DEMP gun, though she still preferred not having to have to use it, but she figured the odds were that it would be required. It would be an interesting mission.

"What did you expect from an inverse square law?...in bed!" -- a questionable fortune cookie with addendum.

Why do they always keep the lights so dim on shuttles? Lynine wondered to herself, struggling to see through the dim gloom at the other agents and commandos. She could hear better than she could see and the soft chatter between friends or the triple-checking of weapons did little to provide any sense of relief or comfort as images of fire and brimstone filled her mind as they descended to Mechis III. Breathing slowly, she worked on steadying her nerves, wishing she could have had a better sleep the previous night but, as was typical, nightmares plagued her rest so the best she got was a restless sleep, hardly feeling well-rested but also far from being tired too.

"Touchdown in thirty!" a voice yelled out over the din of quiet activity.

The EX-2 armour was fast becoming her favorite piece of gear, the ability to walk around with near impunity helped though the three hour timer did leave a lot to be desired. A couple ion grenades, a blaster pistol and an E-12 carbine were all the weapons she packed, along with the usual staple of slicing gear to get her through doors without having to explode a hole to crawl through. As the shuttle got nearer to the surface of the world, the hatch opened up and a thick plume of ash quickly entered the passenger hold. Lynine took a deep breath before the ash reached her but it was a pointless effort as she would soon have to start breathing normally anyways and when she did, the air tasted of ash and sulphur further adding to the illusion of fire and brimstone though she had yet to actually gaze out at the landscape.

And when the shuttle touched down and everyone disembarked, Lynine was faced with a scene straight out of one of her more unpleasant nightmares. The air was filled with thick clouds of ash as plumes of magma spouted all over, red hot glowing rivers of molten rock and metal flowed down black mountains that, if not for the glowing rivers and magmafalls (for lack of a better term), she probably wouldn't have been able to see at all. If all that wasn't bad enough, it was hot, very hot but not the pleasant-summer-day-kicking-out-on-the-beach-in-a-bikini hot, just plain hot as though they had stepped out of an ice box and into a molecular furnace.

A voice crackled over the comm suddenly. "This is SkyEye to ground team, I've got you on visual." Lynine reflexively looked around, not sure who was speaking. "There's several patrol droids roaming the perimeter to the central facility. Be advised, there's also an overflow of magma along the east gate so entry via that route is not advised."

"Who's talking?" Lynine hissed aloud.

Another agent pointed up to the sky above. Though no one could see it, a lone Tigris spy craft was flying high above them, using all manner of imaging to provide the group below with real time intelligence. "Spy drone."

"Ah." She managed a slight smile, seeing this eye-in-the-sky as something potentially useful yet she also wondered why she didn't have this sort of support during other missions in the past. "Sounds useful."

"Yeah, until we get inside a building," another commando muttered gruffly. "Then whatzit gonna do?"

Mechis III was not a planet for the faint of heart, that much was certain. Heat that blistered and seared, a volcanic furnace all around them...and metal, sparks, and wiring as far as the eye could see, farther than the mind could contemplate. At first glance, it was the perfect example of what would happen in a case of Urban Warfare gone horribly wrong...and that's exactly how Wolfgang viewed it as he made his way to the primary construction facility. Instinctively, his mind began assessing the entire planet--the ridges and valleys caused in the topographical layout from the volcanic activity, the layout and structural points of the droid factories, even the potential for anti-air support, air superiority, and artillery concerns--from the standpoint of a man steeped in the traditions of war.

It was that same mindset, though, that caused him to need to think from a different one. After all, a person like Wolfgang Dieter--powerfully built, and rigorously military-made--was not necessary on Mechis III. While he couldn't easily get rid of the physical aspects of his person, he could at least carry it differently...and thus had Dettrick Kain been born. Dettrick Kain was a simple man; born on Anaxes, he was a simple man who had grown up and become disillusioned with the Empire and their practiced, casual brutality. He was a skilled laborer, and had been known to show keen organizational skills that allowed him to work well in an oversight capacity, which was just what Tyko Thul had wanted when he hired the man for the droid factories of Mechis III.

Dettrick Kain also had one other thing going for him: he didn't exist. The man was a cover...Zeta's cover. Waking up for his second week 'on the job', Wolfgang sighed, once more reminded of how much he hated the damned heat on this planet. He wouldn't mind spending the next month or two on Alzoc III or Hoth if it meant getting out of this infernal heat. Already, he hated the planet, and he could tell deep down in the marrow of his bones that it would only get worse before it got any better. With a sigh, he slammed down on the alarm chrono beside his nowhere-near-cool-enough bed, got up, and dressed for the daily grind. Wolfgang absolutely hated Dettrick's job...

...but work was work, and work that had a chance of later harming the Empire was a job Dettrick loved, almost enough to do it for free.

Mechis III
Day of Imperial Operations

CLANG! CLANG!

Oversight of the production line wasn't as bad as Dettrick had first expected it to be; for one thing, it was mostly run by droids, anyway. The machines had been programmed with a high sense of organization to begin with, and their keen understanding of the concepts behind lean processes and construction efficiency made for this job to be extremely easy. They ran the entire construction line, maintained all of the machines, and some of them even helped with the oversight, to assist the organics in understanding everything that was happening at any given moment. Still, there were some trick that Dettrick gave them every so often, little tidbits of organizational management that he'd come across as during his time in the Empire.

It was enough that it took his mind off of the fact that the man in overall charge of the facility had bought the entire planet...and had been able to afford such a large transaction without going completely broke. It was, to some degree, awe-inspiring to work for someone with that much money on-hand; still, that wasn't the part of working for Thul that had the former Imperial happy to be at the post, even though the money was really damned good. What made Dettrick Kain love the job so much--besides how it could be used against the Empire--was the hospitality of his boss. It was said that no man in the galaxy could rival an Alderaanian nobleman for hospitality, and the ex-Imperial Anaxsi had learned how true this was, several times.

In fact, it still amazed him that Lord Thul allowed him to carry a small sidearm to work...but for Dettrick, it was a measure of safety, and nothing more. He'd been asked once or twice to explain it, naturally, but everyone had the stories they liked to share, and the stories they kept hidden from everyone. Mr. Kain kept this one well-concealed...every time. He was sure that Tyko was going to revoke that particular grace if the story didn't come out today, but he didn't honestly have any worries about it. After today, it wouldn't be necessary.

Today, after all, was the day Wolfgang had been told to expect the rest of the Federation to finally strike, and that alone made all of the past few weeks worth it. The insufferable clamor from the droids; the irritable coworkers, all of them bloody panicked over the IG-88 mess and the fear of becoming the next Arakyd; the mixed concern and fawning over the lone coworker with a gun; and the lying about being a fellow enemy of the Empire...all of it was due to be vindicated later today. The high-colonel smiled to himself as he made his way into the factory, heading off for his first stop: a performance evaluation meeting with Lord Thul, in person. Once again, it was an example of the finest hospitality in the known galaxy.

"Mr. Kain," the nobleman began in his demure voice as the door slid shut. "You've been with us for a month now. How would you say things are going with the factory?" As he asked, he began to pour two glasses of water, his back to the man he had trusted with overseeing operations in his factory. When he turned to face Dettrick...

...he found a Q-4 holdout aiming square into his face. "Better than you," Wolfgang said, keeping his face expressionless. "Sorry to have to lie to such a gentleman as you for the past month, but...well...business is business. Shall we talk?"

Tyko was going through his routine; he would on average make sure that the employees, picked at random, were still sane. After all there was very limited human interaction in the facility. As Mr. Kain entered his office, he went to pour two glasses of water, while speaking.

"You've been with us for a month now. How would you say things are going with the factory?" as he began to turn back around, he was met with a surprise.

"Better than you. Sorry to have to lie to such a gentleman as you for the past month, but...well...business is business. Shall we talk?"

Tyko saw down the barrel of the blaster that was pulled into his face. It looked fairly nice, but it was not going to be very helpful to the man in a matter of moments. He moved his left foot 45 degrees to the left, and depressed a switch on the floor. Tyko was dropped down his trap door escape route, the trap door swung shut, but not after a bolt or two passed through before the door swung shut. The best part about this escape route was that at the bottom was a hand scanner set to only open to his handprint. This was a security measure he had placed in, in the event that he had to escape or in the more likely event that he had to trap someone else. But this time it was his escape route, he pressed his hand on the scanner and waited for the lock to click and disengage. He walked out and turned around to close the durasteel door.

He snickered, and pulled out a datapad he had tucked in his robes. It was his remote access control panel, and he went to his office view. He saw the man kicked and stomping on the trap door panel, which suited his needs perfectly. He pressed a few buttons on his datapad and the picture he was streaming from his office showed 4 turrets in all the corners of the room begin to lower down and open fire on the man he thought was Dettrick Kain. He then tucked away his datapad, after locking down the touch screen option on it to avoid incidentally turning off the turrets in his office. Which by now should be tearing holes into the man. He began to walk away, and activated a few droids as he went by. They were old models, quirky old models. But these battle droids would cover his flank in case the man made it down his escape route.

Flavius grinned as he watched the exchange between the female officer and the others. Clad in the black Novatrooper armour that had been obtained from the previous mission he was mindful that Dravius influence had only extended to a loan. The armour was due back after the mission, and would have to be repainted in the usual colours and he had organized an intensive black spraying of the armour. It looked much better in his opinion.

Flavius nudged the agent gently.

"Don't mind them. Apparently they'd rather have no intel than some intel. Lieutenant Flavius Bretorius, Imperial Army. Here because...well...thats where I was sent."

With a grin he ran his fingers through his hair as he rested his other hand on the helmet which was on his lap. Soon they would land, and then the mission would begin.

Wolfgang the high-colonel reminded himself as he gave the trap-door one good stomp to test it, do you remember when you suggested to Lyric that she be more subtle? This is a prime example of why. He didn't need the damned reminder, either, not right now. He could have shot the man, taken out a limb, and the situation would be vastly different...or he could have just played everything casually, and the two would still be talking right now. No...instead, he'd drawn the gun, and not made use of it when he'd had it out. Of all three possible things to do, that had to be the worst one, without question. It was perhaps a sign that he wanted to be merciful, and not outright kill the man, but...still, there were better ways to handle that than just brandishing a gun and not pulling the damned trigger.

The one stomp against the trap door had elicited a soft cracking sound...like a support beam locking it in place, just below the door. That was good, at least; he could break it the rest of the way, if he could get the rest of it to snap, but it was just as much a matter of how many there were, on top of how far he had to break them. Further than that, there was the matter of what waited at the end of the passage. Shaking his head, the high-colonel turned his attention to the rest of the room. By now, if the Alderaanian was as delusional as he, himself, doubtless fancied everyone else in the factory to be, he would be bringing down the turrets he'd had installed in the room. Part of being the factory's chief of oversight--effectively, Chief Operations Officer--for the past month included seeing to maintenance of some of the more unexpected parts of the facility. Turrets in the briefing room were part of that, and that was effectively where he had Tyko beaten, if only momentarily. Perhaps he'd given himself too much credit, or not given the nobleman enough, in how he'd approached the first move, but the favor had just been returned in full. Instead of trying to kill Wolfgang personally, Tyko Thul had hidden behind remote-controlled turrets...and no man knew death, who lived behind his veil of safety and struck through assassins, be they organic or mechanical.

As he'd punched out for the end of his shift the night before, Wolfgang had snuck a special code into the mainframe that affected these turrets in particular. Specifically, it was a reworked targeting package that would recognize him by biological targeting indeces and other biometric data, and adjust how strong the blasts were accordingly. He couldn't program them to just not fire on him...that would have been too obvious a trick, and the nobleman would have prepped an entire legion to take care of him as a result of that. But, if they blasted him at a setting barely above a stun, and he faceplanted to the deck over the trapdoor...that, Tyko would believe, if he ever needed to.

The second part of the new file was for the turrets to shut down automatically after they registered no more than two combined hits. Their staggered firing rates, inherent with the new targeting package, meant that they would score the hits early, and immediately stop firing before a full cycle had been completed. A few seconds later, they would power down, and retract. The system was executed perfectly, and Wolfgang--no, Dettrick--lay down on the floor for a good minute, allowing the visual to transmit to whatever remote device had armed the weapons. Four soft clicks sounded as they were drawn back into their recesses, and the high-colonel slowly stood back up, looking between the trap door and the door that led back to the factory proper. Giving the door beneath his feet another few stamps for good measure, he smiled as he heard the satisfying crunch of another locking rod snapping under his weight, the door buckling until it was held up by just the hinges the let it swing. The idea of such a breach would probably give Tyko some reason to fear for his safety, but even that didn't affect the hospitality for which an Alderaanian was known. The other workers would be safe...

...And that was why the commando gave the door one last, hard kick, and dropped in, running to follow the nobleman. He couldn't head back out there; his trick had worked on the turrets, but he would be marked by all of the droids being produced before long, and that meant the battle units wold pick up on him. He doubted the droids cared much for the idea of a non-combatant.

Coming on the locked doorway, Wolfgang slowed down, allowing himself a small smile as he walked over to the control panel and eyed it calmly, appraising it. There was a standard-issue biometric lock affixed to it, and it was one that the high-colonel's persona had not installed. Doubtless, it responded to only one signal, and there was no adhesive-coated flimsiplast in the room, or Wolfgang would have tried lifting a fingerprint or two from the panel directly. What he did have, though, was a robotic limb...and the fingers on that hand had been without fingerprints for some time...namely, since an idiot with a primed fragmentation grenade had punched an alien in the jaw and earned a mechanical arm. The panel's last access hadn't been too long ago, so the colonel carefully pressed the print-less hand against the panel, just light enough to try and mimic the movements of a calm aristocrat.

Gently, slowly, the door opened, and beyond it, there was the familiar maze that had become Wolfgang's place of work for the past month under his cover name. Four older-looking droids turned to face the doorway as it opened, and the high-colonel smiled. No, he'd indeed made a mistake in not giving Tyko enough credit...he wasn't going to be so cruel again...nor kind enough to offer an escape, next time they met.

Looking back at the army soldier who introduced himself as Flavius Bretorius, Lynine smiled back a little and said, "Agent... or was that Investigator? It's not important. Just call me Jade." She had lost track of what rank she had been given after the whole Bogden incident, and honestly didn't really keep track of that stuff since, given the line of work she usually performed, rank didn't often matter. "Pleased to meet you all the same."

"Hey, I said can it..." the lead commando hissed again, "And army boy, if you frack this up, the Surface Marshal isn't going to be able to save you. Let's move."

Watching the group move up towards the factory, she looked over at the army Lieutenant and said with a sly grin. "Don't mind them."

Approaching the factory, Lynine had already broken out in a sweat and she had only been walking up a shallow incline for the past ten minutes, avoiding the few droid sentries there were in place. There was a deep rumble sound followed by a loud explosion which startled her. Looking up at the factory, she could just make out what appeared to be a giant cannon, the barrel slowly extending to its normal position. The hell is that thing? The cannon suddenly fired again, the ground rumbling, the projectile fired at such a high velocity, Lynine couldn't actually make out what it was. Odds were the gun was firing some sort of pod into hyperspace and these were the things the briefing had mentioned had to be stopped. I would have thought a space elevator and chemical rockets would be more energy efficient... Lynine thought, not sure what the advantage was to a giant ass cannon.

Reaching the factory limits, Lynine was glad to be walking on solid metal again as she crouched down beside a large rack full of raw metal slabs which was probably destined for the furnace to be turned into actual droid parts like arms and plating. Clutching her rifle, she saw several well equipped battle droids standing guard by a door, ready and and constantly scanning the area, weapons clutched in their metal hands. "Is there any other way in?" she hissed to a commando who came up behind her.

"Negative. Tigris drone shows all the doors are covered by the same guards."

Checking the state of her carbine, Lynine sighed. "Guess we're doing this the hard way then?" Looking back at the army Lieutenant, she suddenly felt a little reassured to have him along.

"Pretty much," the lead commando said, leveling his weapon. "You take the left one, I got right. Once inside, we split up into teams. Examinator, you find a way to shut down that cannon, got it?" Not hearing a response from Lynine, he hissed, "Are you listening?"

Lynine finally clued in that Examinator was referring to her and that was her rank. "Oh, right, yessir." She smiled sheepishly but didn't bother to look at the man, feeling a little embarrassed she had to be reminded what her rank was.

"We're so screwed..." the lead commando muttered as he pulled the trigger to his carbine, another shot from Lynine dropping both droids in near perfect unison. "Go, go, GO!"

Moving to the door, Lynine was already fishing around for the slicing device, working on getting it connected to the access terminal where the software inside the device worked on overriding the locks to grant the team access to the factory. It never worked fast enough, each second feeling like an agonizing minute got longer with each passing instant. When the door was finally opened, the others wasted no time rushing inside. Lynine glanced up at the cannon and suddenly wondered aloud to the Lieutenant before he rushed after the others, "I'm wondering if we wouldn't have an easier time disabling that thing from the outside...?"

The 4 SD-5 Battle Droids began clunking towards the High Colonel, while he was planning his escape vector, or different avenue of attack...

A Signal Beeped Somewhere Else...

That signal was on Tyko Thul's datapad that was tied into his facility, he had the droids activation linked to his datapad and could see that he was being followed. But how he was not sure since he saw the man drop after receiving some blows. Perhaps he had underestimated that the person was a man at all? Well no matter that was why Tyko had multiple layers of defense. The SD-5 Battle Droids would surely take care of the HRD, or assassin droid, or whatever the heck the thing that was following him wouldn't it? But Tyko was sure he was a step ahead, as he was nearing his next safety checkpoint. But alas, another beep on his datapad went off. He thumbed through and noticed that his organic sensors had picked up more organic signatures than normal. Perhaps it was his sensor on the fritz, or perhaps the racket that went on in his office had made the few employees run to another location. But he still sent an observation droid to the area to get a look at the current situation since it could be possible that some of his additional security features may have been tampered with because of the man he had trusted. But at least his escape route was more than likely untampered as he had it installed shortly after purchasing the planet.

Flavius grinned at the agent even though she couldn't see it. She was attractive enough to look at, and combat brains was something he was always attracted to. His father had married his mother - a nurse - on a tour of duty. His mother was not just a nurse however, and was also a part time engineer and had been in demand in the forces herself, and left ranked as a Major a fact that she was incredibly proud of. His father, a Colonel liked to joke that he would have handed over the rank if it meant that he won more battles at home.

"I'm wondering if we wouldn't have an easier time disabling that thing from the outside...?"

"You're perceptive Jade. I would agree. But do you have any ideas as to how to do it? I left my AT-AT in my utility belt. So this army boy is going to have to rely again on ISIS to save his butt"

Flavius could see the logic of the agent's thinking. What he didnt see was how it would be done. He had weapons on him, but that was designed to simply shoot other people, and despite the holo's you couldn't win a real battle by running at the enemy and yelling. Unless you were a Sith Lord..which he was not.

....well, lets hope cutie has a plan....but i have to say, its better than running inside and hoping for the best....

Lynine glanced at Flavius with a grimace on her face. "I had heard rumours that the army was starting to develop a new device called a sense of humour. I suppose you're testing the first prototype?" He did have a good point about getting up to the massive cannon shooting the cargo containers into the sky, the deafening blast from each shot making her want to shut it down all the more. She could see maintenance access ladders on the side of the gun as well as on the upper structure that the weapon was set into. She couldn't quite make out what that structure was sitting on, but she felt more comfortable being outside than inside, which was ironic in a sense because it was fairly dark as it was, if not for the glowing lava rivers around them and the distant eruptions spewing out bright drops of the stuff, the thick ash might have made seeing impossible to her and that's all she needed was to be stumbling around with someone from the army who seemed more interested in packing weapons than anything actually useful.

Waving for him to follow, she said under her breath, "Well, we won't be getting any closer to it standing around." Moving along the outside of the facility, she was surprised the alarms weren't going off. Then she realized the place was staffed by droids mostly so audible alarms were pointless if every one of the droids had a wireless link to some sort of security center. Sure enough, patrols were being stepped up outside. Pointing to a staircase that went up along the side of the building, she gestured for the army boy to go first. "Up there."

"You sure?" he asked, clearly not caring if she was or not as he was already proceeding up the steps.

"Nope," was her simple reply at first as she checked to see the distance to the droids in the distance who were doing a poor job of scanning the area. "But the way I see it, going up has to be a good way to go right? We'll bring ourselves closer one way or another." He didn't argue against that point and when he waved it was all clear up top, she followed after just before the patrolling droids appeared around a collection of shipping containers, the deafening cannon helping mask her footsteps. Reaching the top, she scanned again, this time having a much better view of the upper levels including the way to the cannon. The whole facility was built into the side of an active volcano, not quite the safest spot to build in her mind, but a theatre shield helped keep falling lava droplets from ruining the place, though it did nothing to keep the ash out.

The cannon itself turned out to be an entirely separate building, though it was probably connected internally via tunnels. Narrow catwalks extended across a small chasm in the distance before a long series of staircases winded their way up to the structure itself, ladders then allowing people access to the exterior of the cannon and the aiming servos. They approached the edge of the factory roof where the massive chasm opened up. Lynine remembered being told to never look down and she seldom did, not that she had a fear of heights- she was afraid of the dark so she should at least be given immunity to heights right?- but looking down this time made her pause as a good two hundred meters down was a white hot flowing river of molten rock and whatever else had melted. It was flowing just as water would down a series of rapids which was a little unnerving as magma didn't flow anywhere near that fast.

The catwalk itself was narrow, only wide enough for two people to stand back-to-back and not side-by-side. Just as she was gesturing to cross, she caught movement emerge from a large bay door to their right. Instinct had her duck behind the low railing. A pair of IG-86 droids had emerged, armed with what looked to be very large rifles and they were both being pointed in their direction, the many faceted photoreceptors meaning they missed very few details, in any direction. Their rifles fired a rapid flurry of purple bolts. Lynine knew a few things about guns, mostly from ISIS training and called out, "Pulse rifles!" Her carbine in hand, she pointed it around the low cover and fired blindly back. A flurry of shots flew overhead and she quickly pulled her arm back. "If you didn't bring an AT-AT, I hope you brought something equally useful to take them out," she said to Flavius, flinching as more of the rapid firing shots pinged against the metal wall below the railing she was hiding behind.

I'm getting WAY too old for this! Wolfgang thought, watching the foursome of SD-5 Battle Droids lumber towards him. Immediately, he knew he would have to try better than just getting past them on the premise that he was an employee; undoubtedly, Thul had already instructed them to treat him as hostile--and by the same token, he was a biometric lifesign other than Thul himself in a high-security area. The droids would have little reason to react outside of standard defensive protocols...

...shoot first, stop to confirm a positive ID later.

The droid was designed to be dangerous in anti-personnel warfare fresh off the shelf; such as that was, Wolfgang was therefore not at all surprised to find that the four machines had not been altered too much from the stock designs. Hell, for all he knew, Tyko had bought them from the black market and thrown them down here as a perverse form of security blanket. He hadn't been aware that the machines were even down here, and sincerely doubted that Thul would have upgraded them without consulting him, so he immediately discarded the notion that the modifications--minor as they were--could have happened at any time after the aristocrat had bought them...no, those changes came before.

The part about these changes that surprised Wolfgang was the degree to which they had been changed. Two of them sported a slightly more refined model of anti-infantry cannon on the right arm, while the other pair eschewed that for what appeared to be a munitions launcher. That's not good... The typical battle droid didn't give one whit about 'personal' safety...it had a mission to complete, and nothing else mattered to it.

...Low-yield explosives, made just before use. Yeah, those two couldn't have come cheap. Fortunately for the high-colonel, they made a distinct sound when they were fabricating the small charge, and generally had a limit before exhausting their reserve of explosive ordnance. While it gave him a limited window in which the mod made for a useful target, it allowed him a fair chance to avoid significant harm, if he was paying attention. The trick would be in getting enough shots on it before it ran out--extremely difficult, given the weapon he had in his possession. A holdout was by no means designed for prolonged hard contact.

Sizing up the first of the four lumbering droids, Wolfgang felt a grim smirk cross his face. Tyko wanted a challenge...such could definitely be arranged. First, he had to get these droids off his case, preferably in a manner that confused his quarry. It would need to be a big explosion...one big enough that, when it finally settled, there was nothing left to see. The SD-5's old arm-mounted blaster shone lightly in the dim lighting of the massive hallway as it turned to fire, spewing seething-hot blaster fire on the bio-signature that it had detected just recently, but as it turned, Wolfgang moved as quick as a flash to get out of the firing arc, leaving the machine's target area completely empty. Precisely why an organic security force would have been better, he chided mentally as he tried to think of how to stay at least one step ahead of the automaton. At least a sentient can think! Arguably, they'd been chosen because they couldn't be bribed or tricked...at least, not tricked easily. The turrets in the earlier meeting room were proof that they could, in fact, be tricked, if the trick was just right. Not all tricks, though, had to be made of raw strings of code. Part of this trick, for example, would involve a Hell of a lot of timing; the other part involved getting the infantry models to hold their fire and defer to their more dangerous colleagues...truly, a risky proposition.

Fortunately, there was some construction material left over in the area from when the factory had been renovated and some of the more integral components had been brought up to Lord Thul's high standards. The man had been paranoid to a fault, and most of the material used in the facility's sensitive areas was designed to resist a blaster bolt or two, even from the machines constructed at the factory. This led to a very sturdy place...not perfectly impervious, but largely hardened against assault in certain spots. Some of the debris had been left just laying around, waiting to be used in case of repairs, or further renovation projects...or just turned into scrap for some sort of other project. Quickly, the high-colonel dashed over to the pile, propping up one of the larger panels as though it were a reclined tower shield. As he steadied his defense, he heard the cue for which he'd been waiting...the ominous clanking of the munitions creation system going to work. In his machine-made hand, the holdout blaster sat steady, his aim unflinching as he brought the weapon out and put the lead grenadier droid's module dead in his sights, squeezing off all but a pair of rounds from his gun's magazine. Two shots went in through the launcher barrel itself, and the others danced along the droid's outer arm shell, heating the casing on impact. As he saw the two luckiest blasts go in, Wolfgang instinctively ducked behind the metal sheeting and braced himself, fully expecting that something bad was about to happen.

He was not disappointed when the explosion's force came upon him, knocking him roughly to the ground from behind the shield he had erected. Fighting the metal panel off, he turned to look, and was rewarded with a thick wall of smoke and the crackling of four disabled droids' worth of newly-wrecked scrap. Walking over to one of them, he reached into the giant machine's fallen head, tearing out the memory core, pocketing it, and just as quickly looking for a place to conceal himself. The memory core would have valuable information shared via the uplink with the facility's security network, which would help him figure out if anyone else was breaching the facility...

...and, if need be, help him find whether or not anyone else working in the plant was in danger. Once he was sure he was out of the way, he pulled out his datapad, and plugged in the fallen SD-5's memory core, and attempted to access the network to survey the conditions in the rest of the factory.

"If you didn't bring an AT-AT, I hope you brought something equally useful to take them out,"

Flavius winced at the last statement. Here he was in borrowed armour with essentially a small rifle and a pistol and she was expecting him to suddenly deploy a force of walkers? From where? inside his pants?.

But grumbling wouldn't solve anything. In fact it would only get them killed faster. What was needed was a solution backed up by a plan to execute. Unfortunately that would have to wait until the pulse rifles were no longer a threat.

"I have one slight trick up my sleeve. Cover me."

As the ISIS agent fired and kept the IG droids at bay, Flavius unclipped one of the thermal detonators from his belt and rigged it with a 6 second timer. He scampered on his hands and knees away from the agent and peeped over the cover before starting the timer and lobbing the thermal detonator at the droids. At the same time he moved halfway between this throw point and the ISIS agent and fired a few shots, providing another set of targeting information for the IG droids. He scampered back to where the ISIS agent was and pulled her to the ground and smothered her just as the thermal detonator exploded.

Thermal detonators were renowned for their power.

As the explosion ripped apart the droids, the blast radius strong enough to shred anything in its direct path. The walkways, already precarious enough were hit with the shockwave after the explosion, and began swaying almost as if they were shirts in a breeze. Except this was no gentle summer breeze and the walkway shuddered as the metal groaned and began to buckle, but held for the moment. They were hardly unaffected though, and anything close enough to the shockwave had been twisted almost upside down in an incredible display of force. The structure was now more rickety than ever and it was a race against time before it would collapse, but overall it held thanks to the wall that had shielded them from the pulse rifle bolts.

"Quickly, move now!"

He picked her up and shoved her hard as they began to move forward as quickly as they dared.

"Sorry there wasn't time for niceties. Given I dont have an endless supply of explosives.....can we somehow blow the volcano? or at least make use of the lava?....just seems like it would be easier to have that thing working for us rather than avoiding it"

He exhaled as he waited for her input. If they didnt come up with a plan soon, it would be incredibly hard to silence the massive cannon.

"I haven't the slightest idea to be honest," Lynine managed between breaths as they ran across the narrow bridge. It wasn't a bad plan, if either of them could figure out a way to redirect the lava flows, or maybe cause the nearby volcano to erupt massive gouts of magma that would destroy the cannon. Except, we'd get burned too... Lynine thought sourly, already hating the excessive heat that was making her sweat more than she ever had in her entire life, her body feeling just drenched underneath the armour she wore. "We'll canvas the area when we're across. Maybe we'll find something useful then."

As they ran, a blaster bolt flew past them though Lyine didn't dare look back just yet, more concerned about the bridge falling under all this sudden movement. When she finally reached the other side, she quickly spun around and ducked behind the railing and looked back across the chasm at the second wave of droids shooting at them. They weren't the IG models but more generic security droids, not unlike the 3P0 models, except programmed to wield a blaster rather than translate seven thousand different languages.

Firing back, Lynine couldn't help but smile a little as several of them started marching down the narrow walkway, firing at the hip. There was no cover and they were easy targets for her to shoot back at, and she took a moment to shoot the droids coming at them, knowing she wouldn't get many golden opportunities like this to hit such easy targets. But when she saw more of them marching their way from several other doorways, she started to question how long they could hold out against them. "You got many more of those little explosives left?" she asked, glancing at the army boy only to see he was way ahead of her. She snorted in amusement as he primed and chucked it onto the catwalk, gesturing for her to move so they were beyond the blast radius again. She followed, feeling the wave of pressure and heat from the shockwave as it tore apart the narrow bridge, severing the one spot and causing the remaining supports to buckle and eventually fail, the bridge coming down entirely and taking a good half dozen droids with it, as well as the two Lynine had managed to kill with her own blaster before hand.

Disappearing around the building, the two of them were free from reprisal any droid snipers might try to extend their way. Now they had an opportunity to look around a bit more at the layout. Looking at where the structure of the building and gun was set into the side of the volcano, "It stands to reason there may be a fairly thin or weak spot somewhere between the building itself and maybe the chimney?" Pointing to the top of the volcano, Lynine added as she watched belches of orange glowing globs of magma fly out, some of it splashing against the shield that surrounded the cannon and indeed virtually all the facilities in the area. "You have a few of these on you?" She gestured to the detpack on her own belt, hardly something meant to be tossed around freely, but they made up for it by being able to level just about anything.

One probably wouldn't be enough to cause a breach and allow lava to gush into the base and the only alternate plan was to destroy the shield generator. Admittedly, at this point, they would have been better served just climbing to the top of the gun, slapping the detpack somewhere on the massive barrel and then detonating it when they were a safe distance. No more crates would reach space that way. "C'mon," she shook her head suddenly, "We'll stick with plan A."

Sentries were starting to emerge from different access doors, many of them remaining on watch, working to prevent them from entering the building at all but the two of them weren't interested in going inside, instead they were using the access ladders and stairs to scale the exterior of the structure. When at last the two of them were at the base of the gun itself, Lynine could feel the ground rumble tremendously with each shot as though the very building should have crumbled apart. The discharge blast was deafening though the comm she had equipped doubled as a very powerful earplug, able to filter out the extreme noises explosions and massive cannons firing. She was about to start climbing when a shot brushed right in front of her, a thin green blaster line narrowly missing her head. Stumbling back, she nearly fell off the ledge down two stories to the balcony below if not for the army boy's quick reflexes as he grabbed her and hauled her down behind cover.

"Thanks..." she managed, breathless at how she had just narrowly avoided death. Her heart was racing, the rush of adrenaline surging for a brief moment before it died off completely. Drawing in a deep breath, she crept over to the parapet and quickly took a peak in the general direction where the shot had come from. Ducking down quickly, the sound of a blaster bolt hitting the railing told her she didn't have to worry quite as much, the droid's aim a little off but she had seen enough anyways. "They've got snipers. No doubt we're going to have company real soon." Looking at her blaster, she pressed her lips together as she looked at it. The DXR6 wasn't really a sniper rifle by any means, though she could probably get a lucky hit or two. Glancing at her companion, she said, "One of us is going to have to keep their heads down while the other climbs up that gun to plant the charge... Which do you want?"

It had hardly been uneventful this mission, but it felt good to be in on a simple enough mission. Sure, cutie made it better but if she was a 500 pound wookie he would have still had a fair bit of fun.

No force tricks, no invasions, no secret intrigues....just a thing to blow up and not die. This...this is what I signed up for....

Grinning and glad his face was protected by the helmet, he quickly focused back on the mission. His thermal detonator had removed the first threat, but new ones rapidly emerged. They were dealt with until cutie finally put the mission in its proper focus.

"One of us is going to have to keep their heads down while the other climbs up that gun to plant the charge... Which do you want?"

Flavius pushed the sensors to the limit as he scanned the route to the top of the cannon. It wasn't the best plan, but it was the only plan that would work. As he scanned the route he could see that she was right, and that there would be points for the snipers to hide. Only the MTAS in his helmet would help him pick off the snipers. As badly as he wanted to blow the cannon, the mission came first.
"I'll pick the snipers off. My helmet can see through smoke and ash and still pick the targets. Besides, you're probably better with explosives than I am. I'll keep them off your back, but you'll have to hurry. Go!"

With a quick shove he sent her off in the right direction as his MTAS system began working overtime. Before long he saw the hand of a droid and had pulled his blaster up and fired, shredding the hand and causing the rifle to drop.

The other droids were now aware of his position, and hopefully he could play a little cat and mouse with them while cutie placed the charges.

Because if she didnt, then it would be a long, long trip to death valley.

"This might surprise you, but the last time I handled explosives was back in the intel academy..." With a weary smile, Lynine jumped up onto the ladder and began climbing as quickly as she could while the soldier kept the snipers busy. There were fall cages around the ladders which offered her a modicum of protection though nothing that would stop any trained sniper from firing between. As she stared up at the imposing structure before her, the ladder shaking under each and every shot, it was now Lynine felt a little bit uneasy as she hadn't the slightest idea where she should place the explosive that would cripple the gun. Worry about it at the top, she thought, hoping she would be able to find something that might serve as a weak point.

She had reached the first platform without incident and took a quick moment to look down at the soldier helping her out. He was doing well, keeping the snipers distracted so she took the opportunity to keep climbing while she still could, knowing there was little point trying to help give him any cover. Although, even if I do take out the gun, there's nothing dictating they won't keep climbing up to get us. Lynine sighed. There was a sudden loud pang beside her, startling her enough to make her slip a little, a quick grab and pulling motion as she pressed herself against the ladder stopping her from falling, not that the fall cage wouldn't have. One of the snipers had gotten close and Lynine breathed a heavy breath as she regained her footing. And it was now she made her big mistake as she looked down...

And realized just how high up she was.

By the stars!!! Her heart felt like it just stopped as she remained frozen in place, an infinitely easier target but she couldn't help it as her mind thought about how bad a fall from this height would be and how far the ground looked. Further down still were the magma flows, the slow moving river of magma like a giant snake that wanted to leap up suddenly and consume her. Closing her eyes she turned her head to look back straight ahead of her, willing herself to stop thinking about it. That only seemed to make it worse as she found herself standing somewhere else, on a hot summer's day, high atop a cliff looking down at a glistening body of water. Kids were jumping off the cliff which wasn't more than five meters up, diving or cannonballing into the cold water below, but Lynine was frozen with fear, unable to handle the heights at which she stood, even less able to comprehend jumping off.

Then she remembered being shoved suddenly and the lake started to rush towards her and...

Gasping for breath, Lynine snapped back into the present, gently banging her head against one of the rungs. Get a grip... Looking back up, she was determined to get to the top and kept her gaze fixed upwards as she continued the ascent. Though her stomach didn't want her to continue, the fact she had a mission to accomplish drove her forward. Now wasn't the time to seize up. More shots darted about around her, it had appeared as though there were either too many of them for her companion to deal with or he was getting distracted by something else.

Reaching the second platform, it was hard to keep her balance on the level surface as the gun shook with each shot, the tremendous amounts of recoil to send the cargo containers into space feeling as though the entire world itself were shaking. The good news now was that she was up higher than they could effectively shoot her, the platform providing ample cover but as soon as she got about ten feet up the final ladder, she would be a visible target again. Looking around, she tried to determine where a good spot for the charge would be. Then she found it, the spot where the gun was connected to the support brackets that held it in place.

Resuming her climb, she could feel herself tiring out, her arms and legs getting tired of the vertical movement. Almost... there. She felt something graze her back and she gasped again, instinctively pressing herself against the ladder once again, clinging to it for dear life. Taking deep breaths, she closed her eyes and fought the urge to look down at the snipers again. She knew she was higher up and she also knew that looking down would feel ten times worse than before as it would feel she was a hundred times higher now. The small of her back hurt, the grazing shot possibly having cut a little too close for comfort now but Lynine had reached her target destination as she was on the joint where the cannon was held in place by the large bracket.

The shaking was infinitely worse up here, she had to literally wrap one arm around the ladder and hug it just to secure herself. Now she understood what all those signs talking about fall protection were about. Reaching for the charge, she primed the device, setting the timer for thirty minutes, more than enough time for them to figure out how to get away from it should it decide to collapse on top of them, but also set it up for remote detonation as well, liking the idea of having a backup plan in place. Or should that be the other way around, the timer is the backup plan...?

Slapping the charge between the barrel and the bracket, she hoped her theory would work and fast began working her way down, doing everything in her power to not look down as she descended. Activating her comm, she said to the soldier, "Charge is in place. I hope you have an exit strategy!"

The Multi-Frequency Targeting and Acquisition System or (MFTAS) was the cornerstone of capability of stormtroopers to fight in any conditions. It meant they could fire in smoke. In the rain. In darkness. In any number of conditions that would be present when stormtroopers filed out of walkers or shuttles or even capital ships into battle.

Between this and Holographic Vision Processors, Flavius should have been able to hit the droids easily. They were after all, hardly IG-88's clones running around. The smoke and ash made it difficult though. Blaster bolts did not display the characteristics they normally did. As such, he was simply aiming for rocks near heads, or the ground near feet to trip them up before dispatching them with another shot to the head. His shooting was accurate enough - and he had been trained with rifles since a young age so they were like an extension of himself to him - but it was not as good as it could have been.

Still, he had distracted them by and large from cutie, and had put away enough of them to allow her to reach the top. She was quick, and before he knew it, she had begun her descent. Accuracy had afforded him the luxury of checking on her via implant and he could see her progress and was impressed.

Suddenly, she came over on the comm

"Charge is in place. I hope you have an exit strategy!"

"Developing one. Give me a minute"

With a grin on his face, Flavius fired a constant stream of shots into a large boulder that set it rolling and distracted the droids. As that happened he sat behind his cover, exhaled and began frantically scanning with his macrobinoculars. There had to be some way off this rock.

Flavius zoomed in using the macrobinoculars and grinned. It seemed that fate had been kind to them for once and that there was something of an exit strategy. It was crude, slow, and it would probably get them killed, but it was enough of an exit strategy to give them a chance at not dying. And in the words of his uncle: "Dying is not so good. Not dying, very good".

With a chuckle he commed back cutie.

"I believe I have an exit strategy. Droid efficiency means they have been doing some work on the rocks to keep the place geologically stable - well as stable as possible, and they do have an old repulsorlift ore hauler to move the debris they create from what im guessing is plasma cutting. That looks like our ticket out of here, but im warning you its going to be slow. Ideally, if you pilot it, ill keep our friends off our backs. Its either that or run and start begging the shuttle to pick us up"

Flavius stood up and fired agressively at the droids who were advancing on his position. He dropped a few with ease and the remainder pulled back. Droids were not stupid, and did learn and would not always throw wave after wave at the enemy. Of course, it was entirely possible there was a central controller viewing everything, but on this planet it was unlikely.

All that was left was for cutie to okay or nix the plan. Flavius just hoped it would be soon as he was running out of options.

Any plan was good and for Lynine who was now trying to figure out how to get down without getting shot to pieces. Seeing the large ore hauler, she frowned. How did the man expect them to reach the thing? She didn't have a grav belt so her descent would be slow going, a matter made worse as the droids were already surrounding his position. Firing her carbine at some of the droids, she helped clear him a path to the ore hauler as she commed back, "Get to the vehicle then, I'll return the favor and give you cover." Her carbine barked out several more shots, forcing a droid back behind the rocky outcropping it was using for cover and giving the soldier the opportunity he needed to make a dash for the vehicle.

The cannon shook, another container being ejected into space, but the shaking made her pause in her shooting as she had to reach for the supports to keep herself steady. When the shaking subsided, she fired off a flurry of shots before descending down to a more stable platform and resumed firing while soldier boy made for the ore hauler, jumping into the cockpit and yanking the worker droid out who didn't put up much of a fight as it fell a good two stories to the rocks below, shattering into more than just a few pieces. The armed droids were starting to try and swarm the vehicle but it was equipped with repulsors and because it was designed to handle hot rocks and the beatings so the shots fired at it pinged harmlessly off the thick armour. The canopy was just as well armoured, transparisteel that was on par with what might be found on capital ships easily took the shots.

Of course, not all the droids were focused on the soldier now as others were turning their sights to Lynine, blaster bolts flying up at her. Ducking behind the railing, the ISIS commando wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand. From all the commotion of the gun firing, the blaster fire and the ringing in her ears, she wasn't expecting to see the ore hauler so close to her now, not that she was complaining mind. More shots flew up at her, forcing her back down while several droids carrying heavier firepower emerged, plex launchers on their shoulders, the first torpedo flying high into the air over Lynine's head, whether the droid had aimed for the ore hauler or the platform she was on, she didn't know nor did she want to find out. Can't believe I'm doing this... she thought as she looked to the side and saw the hauler begin to drive past and just beneath, the soldier driving it wearing a lopsided smirk on his face. Ignoring the expression, the commando got to her feet swiftly and, with a very short running start, vaulted over the railing, aiming for the massive cargo bin of the hauler below.

Of course, she hadn't fully expected it to be full of rocks of differing size and shape but it was too late now as she landed awkwardly on her side, tumbling as best she could to avoid breaking anything. The massive cannon fired again and she barely heard the soldier's inquiry as to whether or not she had made it aboard safely. "I'm in. Go!" she called back through the comm, shouting over the rumbling echos and ringing in her ears. The repulsor vehicle started to swerve as it kicked itself away from the side of the volcano, moving at an incredibly agonizing slow speed. Propping herself up, Lynine watched as they put some distance between them and the large cannon. Reaching for the detonator with her free hand, she couldn't help but smile just a little, letting her thumb hover over the trigger for a moment as she took note of this moment. Depressing the button, she blinked once as it appeared as though nothing had happened. Then she saw a small flash, an explosion tearing into the support bracket, twisting it away from the cannon it supported. No longer having the support, the barrel started to fall to the side, throwing off the trajectory and forcing the safety interlocks to kick in, shutting the gun down from firing any more hyperdrive equipped cargo containers into space and beyond.

Sitting down on the rocks in the bed of the hauler, Lynine said with some amusement, "You're missing a stellar view of our handiwork here."

This was easier said than done, but Flavius was in no mood to bicker. Cutie had been helpful and would probably get them home alive. With a grin he knew he revelled in the somewhat simple dangers of this mission and the rifle became an extension of himself. He darted, ducked and weaved firing burst after burst, peppering the enemy droids with enough fire to push them back.

Cutie had played her part and slammed a few droids back into the earth and Flavius was grateful as he hauled ass to the hauler. His legs pumped ferociously and he gritted his teeth as he ran from cover point to cover point even throwing in a few rolls, not for theatrics but simply to change the size of his target profile. His armour had by now a few scuffs on it, but it was nothing him and Dravius couldn't buff out with a few careful shots of the laser.

Behind him he felt the next cotainer shoot into space but that was beyond his comprehension as he began the final line to the hauler. A few searching bolts from the droid were close, but Flavius was young, strong and fast. He sprinted and took a running leap, tumbling into the drivers cabin.

Under fire he had the presence of mind to fire up the hauler using the normal startup protocols and fortunately, as the controls had not been security locked he began to move straight away. One hand remained on his rifle as he fired shots at the droids, hitting a few in the arms and then used the hauler to run over a few more, which bought him some breathing space.

As the hauler chugged on, he moved to cutie's position waving at her. Eventually he felt her leap into the hauler and proceeded to fire up the hauler to top speed. It began moving with some speed as the cannon exploded causing the young soldier to grin under the helmet. He immediately opened a secure channel to the shuttle.

"Shuttle, this is Trooper TK-4112 making contact. We are currently in an ore hauler heading South. Would appreciate some rendezvous coordinates"

"You're in a....never mind. Head to nav point beta on the tac map. We will pick you up there"

"Roger that. Thanks guys"

The hauler continued to move at a decent speed as Flavius commed cutie

"Pity I missed the show. You know, if we aren't destroyed by the debris, perhaps I could buy you a drink on the Nemesis? Regulations demand that we salute our saviours."

And just like that, as the debris rained down around them in a show of hellfire, Flavius asked cutie out on a date.

While Wolfgang was deterred long enough by the SD-5 Battle Droids, Tyko Thul had put on enough distance to get to his escape shuttle. The pain of losing the facility was of little concern since he had made quite the profit from it, so leaving with his life was fair enough a trade. His shuttle was launched out of one of the hyperspace cargo pod launchers, and he was now long gone. Due to him slaving all controls to his datapad, incase of a droid rebellion everything shut down. Thus leaving the valiant troops and ISIS agents outside free of chase. The droid pursuit vehicle crashed into the lava river, and created a back up. The lava backed up until it collapsed the bridges dividing the two sides of the facility.

Primary:
1) Minimal Damage to the droid production facilities (Minor Victory as the factory is still usuable, but a lot of repairs need to be effected from lava damage)
2) Secure any blueprints of plans used on the production assemblies (Partially Successful, the droid memory core Wolfgang obtained has some data from the SD-5s watching the beginning of the assembly lines first tests of automation)
3) Secure any blueprint of plans discontinued from production that could prove fruitful (Inconclusive, as the droid memory core Wolfgang obtained was partially damaged all information could not be extracted)

Secondary:
1) Stop any of the automated cargo pods from entering hyperspace (Failed, all cargo pods loaded escaped the facility as well as Thul's shuttle in the same matter)
2) Back up the export records of the droid factories to know what has been shipped to whom and where (In process as the facility has to be fixed to determine if access to that information can be found)
3) It is speculated that they produce some battle droids for the NR. (Confirm the rumors or render them false) (In progress as the facility has to be fixed to determine if access to that information can be found)